Tag Archives: Black Panther

The superhero is a mythological construct unique to American society and the backbone of the American comic book industry. The superhero is the construct of immigrants; people from different cultures coming together to form a new nation where the unique attributes of each culture contribute to the greater whole.

As, arguably, the first immigrants (other than British and French) of America, African Americans were, initially, left out of the equation when constructing the superhero myth and were relegated to supporting roles. With the Black Panther’s appearance in Fantastic Four, African Americans were introduced into the mainstream consciousness of superhero myth.

The Jackie Robinson of comics… Looking good at 51…

The current curator of the Black Panther myth is Ta’Nehisi Coates, national correspondent for the Atlantic and recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship…

And some people have an issue with his handling of this particular mythology.

Personally, I don’t mind Coates’ take on the Black Panther mythos. His are the kind of stories that I, to an extent, would write. It has been slow building and it is a depiction of Wakanda as if Wakanda were an actual African country dealing with real political issues. I would argue that Coates’ run on the series will be as impactful as runs from Don McGregor, Christopher Priest and Reginald Hudlin.

That being said, some people are just not feeling Coates’ work on the title. So much so, some feel as if he is deliberately trying to bring down the Black Panther in terms of relevance and trying to destroy Wakanda in a way Namor or Doctor Doom or Thanos never could.

Which… Is ridiculous.

The monarch beef is real…

I understand some of us want to see T’Challa infallible, invincible, with Wakanda being the Afrofuturistic utopia of our dreams. We want our Black Panther bitchslapping Steve Rogers for putting mayo on his sandwich instead of mustard. We want to see the Dora Milaje single-handedly taking down S.H.I.E.L.D. because it’s Tuesday. We want that escapist wish fulfillment that we are not getting in our daily lives, especially in today’s political and social climate.

The problem is, utopias don’t exist. Not even in comics.

A Call to Arms

For example, did Coates force misogyny and rape culture into the mythos of Wakanda, or did he use the construct of Wakanda as a vehicle for commentary to what is happening not only on the continent, but in the world right now? Wakanda is in Africa, which has been dealing with issues concerning rape culture and slavery recently.

Have we already forgotten Boko Haram? Are we oblivious to the slave trade happening in Libya right now? Anyone?

In Coates’ interpretation, despite its majesty, Wakanda is no different than the creation of other great nations: not only African, but globally…

Well, with the exception of aliens losing their land instead of other Africans.

And, that little wrinkle in the Black Panther myth has added to the ire that some Black Panther fans have for the writer.

In reality, Wakanda has never been simon-pure. Priest had Wakanda dealing with an uprising from within at the beginning of The Client, McGregor created Killmonger in Panther’s Rage as a revolutionary whose basis for overthrowing Wakanda was tribal and personal, etc.

My favorite iteration of the Black Panther mythos…

T’Challa, from McGregor’s run onto Coates, has always been depicted as a man torn between duty and desire. In the mythology, he has always preferred being a hero to being a king much to the chagrin of the Panther god and the Black Panthers before him (see the 1988 mini-series by Gillis and Cowan, Who is the Black Panther Pt.2 by Cowan and Lashley, the Black Panther: Man Without Fear arc by Liss and Francavilla for examples).

Besides, it’s not like T’Challa hasn’t met, or worked with, despots before. When the first Illuminati became the Cabal following the events of the Secret Invasion storyline, Namor tried to get T’Challa in to balance the likes of Doctor Doom, Loki, the Hood and Emma Frost. In New Avengers, he was working alongside Namor after Atlantis attacked Wakanda in Avengers Vs. X-Men and after Namor sold out Wakanda again to Thanos’ forces in Infinity.

Doing the unthinkable… Because that’s what rulers do…

So, after Doomwar, AVX, Infinity and Secret Wars, I would imagine Wakandans would feel some type of way about T’Challa and the court after those back-to-back tragedies. In fact, that’s referenced in the first issue of Coates’ run.

In the Nation Under Our Feet story arc, rape culture is an issue in Wakanda. Aneka and Ayo, the rogue Dora Milaje now the Midnight Angels addresses it, which brings attention to the royal court. With the rebellion and subtle coup from the confusion happening, the Midnight Angels, along with his sister Shuri (who returns from the Djallla following the “Living Death” as a more powerful and unique character), Changamire, Hatut Zeraze and the Crew help T’Challa not only quell the rebellion, but also helps to institute a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy in order to deal with such issues in the future.

And, the problem is? Apparently for some, Coates’ work taints the fantasy of an Africa we, as African Americans, wish existed.

From struggle, a new nation is born…

But, what good is showing a better world without showing the struggle it took to create it? I mean the X-Men works as a concept because a marginalized people, mutants, fight for a better world that doesn’t currently exist… right?

One doesn’t have to like every iteration of a character or gush over every interpretation. For instance, my issue with Hudlin’s run was that I thought it was too light, too “comic book.” I felt he eschewed the complexity of Priest’s work for more of the wish-fulfillment aspects of Black nerdom. It was fun, but left me feeling a little flat.

A good run, but not my favorite. However, Hudlin did fulfill the wishes of the Black Panther and Storm’s many fans…

A major strength of Priest’s run was, as a writer and former editor of comics, he understood the mechanics and quirks of the medium. He was able to marry the more complex themes of the book with the action that comic book fans are used to.

I think an issue with Coates’ run is that he is too serious a writer for some fans. In addition, outside of the bit of writing he does for Marvel, he’s not known as a writer of fiction. Scriptwriting, especially comic book scriptwriting is not his forte. For me, it’s akin to Doo-Bop (Miles Davis’ last album before he passed); a Hip Hop album by one of the all-time great jazz musicians, but didn’t spend a lot of time in the realm of the new music form he was trying to emulate.

The last recording from a legend…

Coates does bring depth and nuance to his run as a myth curator. He just doesn’t have the seasoning of good comic book storytelling to make his run more palatable. In other words, people don’t feel joy reading his stories. They are not fun. Because of this, people complain about the weight of social issues he brings to the mythology as if the mythology of the Black Panther wasn’t steeped in social commentary from his first appearance in 1966 onward.

Not only is Coates challenging the mythology, he’s not making it an easy go for the comic book reader. He’s writing the book as if it were a fictional novel written by an academic social essayist (which, he is). There’s not enough escapist water for the casual reader when the sociological meat is too hard to swallow. If Coates had a stronger comic book writing sensibility, I feel that his critics wouldn’t be too up in arms about the subject matter he’s brought to the mythos.

At the end of the day, the core issue is whether or not Coates can write entertaining comics. Honestly, comics are not his strong suit. They are not in his wheelhouse. He was brought onto the title because his name carries weight outside of comics…

Like Reginald Hudlin.

So, do I think Coates’ run is terrible?

No.

Do I think his run has been great?

No.

Do I think Coates is a superlative comic book writer?

Hell, no.

But, do I think he has an agenda to “bring down” the Black Panther as a character?

No.

Finally, for those of you getting your pitchforks and torches ready (not the Tiki torches because these fans aren’t butter-soft alt-right scrubs), you’re not going to see more of the “problematic” elements of Coates’ run in the upcoming Black Panther film. So, Coates’ detractors should take a deep cleansing breath. The ingredients for this particular dish will probably be 2 cups of Priest’s run for story, 1-¼ cups of McGregor for world-building, 1 cup of Hudlin for attitude with a dash of Coates for social relevance.

King… Hero… Legend…

Again, I would have incorporated a number of elements Coates introduced in his curation of the Black Panther myth if I were approached by Marvel to write the book. The difference is that I understand the mechanics of comic book writing and would have incorporated more of the wish fulfillment of the fan base. It would have been, hopefully, as complex as the work of Christopher Priest and Don McGregor. It also would have been as fun as Reginald Hudlin’s work as well.

Six years earlier in 1960, 17 African nations gained independence from their colonial overlords. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, two men of Euro-American Jewish descent, famously introduced The Black Panther in Fantastic Four #52 dated July 1966, three months before the revolutionary Black Nationalist organization of the same name.

I don’t know if the upheaval in the continent influenced the creation of T’Challa, but the introduction of the Black Panther was a revolutionary moment.

To have the first mainstream Black superhero in comic book history come from the continent, from a country (though fictional) that was technologically ahead of the Western world, to have that hero not only as competent as, but superior, to his white counterparts (he defeated the Fantastic Four in his first outing), was as radical as the Civil Rights Movement and as resonate as the African Independence Movements. The Black Panther was ahead of his time…

Too far ahead.

I will say that Don McGregor is a cornerstone in the development of the Black Panther’s world. McGregor would build T’Challa’s court including W’Kabi and Taku as well as creating, arguably, T’Challa’s greatest adversary in Erik Killmonger as well as his first great love, African American musician Monica Lynne.

Panther’s Rage by Don McGregor & Rich Buckler

The story was called Panther’s Rage, which ran as a 13-issue story arc in the bi-monthly Jungle Action title from 1973 – 1975. Recognized as the industry’s first “graphic novel,” Panther’s Rage was an epic tale set in Africa. Beautifully illustrated by Rich Buckler, Gil Kane, Billy Graham, Klaus Janson, P. Craig Russell and Bob McLeod, Panther’s Rage was dense, complex and sensuous.

T’Challa was depicted as a man of great passion and determination. Killmonger was more than just a standard mustache-twirling villain, but a revolutionary wanting justice for his father who died laboring in the vibranium mines (the fictional metal of the Marvel Universe and the source of Wakanda’s vast wealth). T’Challa and Killmonger’s rivalry was personal and brutal. Every victory was hard-fought and hard earned in this story. McGregor was able to infuse the world of the Black Panther with some realities of life on the continent giving the story and the character a resonance that one would think made the Black Panther a character to be reckoned with, an A-list property if you will…

Then…

Despite McGregor’s Panther vs. The Clan follow-up arc to Panther’s Rage, the Black Panther failed to gain substantial traction as an ongoing series. Oh sure, he would pop up in other titles, sometimes as a guest star, but mostly stayed in the background, the veritable “Franklin” of the Marvel Universe.

The mainstream comic book industry was, and is, dominated by white men. It’s majority-cultivated fanbase, until relatively recently, was geared towards white male power fantasy. In the late ‘60s and early 1970s, creators of color, especially writers of color, were few to none. Though this period saw the emergence of Black comic book artists the likes of Billy Graham, Arvell Jones, Trevor Von Eeden and others, the voice of Black superheroes was the voice of the other…

And, T’Challa suffered from it.

From the age of ten, I knew that I was going to be a comic book creator. I became enamored with the medium the second I opened the first comic book my father gave me. My love for the medium was beyond mere brand loyalty. DC, Marvel, Atlas, Charlton, First Comics, it didn’t matter. I was a nerd in the classic sense. In addition to comics, I was interested in science fiction and mythology. This love of mythology, coupled with the awakening of my political philosophy and Diasporatic African identity, led me to study the ancient faith systems of the continent. This largely untapped subject matter became the well from which my eventual contribution into the industry would spring forth. I was an Afrofuturist before the term was coined.

And, it was in this emergence of my creative self that my frustration with the Black Panther began.

The Black Panther in Marvel Fanfare

Though the character would be the focus of various mini-series by Peter B. Gillis, Denys Cowan, Don McGregor, Gene Colan and Dwayne Turner, I felt that the character was underutilized and that the Black Panther was a treasure chest of untapped potential and untapped exploration…

The Black Panther became a promise unfulfilled.

I erroneously thought that all creators tapped into the same wellspring of creation, that we all studied the same points of interest and Marvel had dropped the ball by not making Black Panther an ongoing series thereby giving these creators the opportunity to utilize the revelation of story ideas that the exploration of African history, politics, culture and mythology had provided me.

But eventually, I realized that T’Challa’s development, as a character was, ultimately, not my concern. Though I had affection for the Black Panther, I did not own the character, he was not my “child,” so to speak. I had to use my resources and influences for my benefit, for my creative process. I had to use the elements that were “forgotten” in the Black Panther’s development for my own purposes.

From Wakanda to Lumumba City, a page from Mythos: The Official Handbook of the Horsemen Universe

I had looked to the promise of the future that would be labeled as the Black Age of Comics, or Black Comix movement, for my inspiration. Inspired by the emerging voices that Milestone Media, Brotherman, Tribe and others brought to the industry, I forged ahead with my exploration and development of my property, infusing my nascent universe, The Horsemen, with the elements I felt missing from the Black Panther.

In reality, the only thing that T’Challa needed were Black voices to tell his tale.

Enemy of the State by Christopher Priest and Mark Texeira

Christopher Priest found T’Challa’s voice in his silence. When Black Panther Vol.3 debut in 1998, Priest (along with artists Mark Texeira, Joe Jusko and Mike Manley) made T’Challa the epitome of detached cool. The Enemy of the State arc made T’Challa, and Wakanda, a force to be reckoned with in the Marvel Universe. A tale of espionage, Priest created State Department attorney K. Everett Ross to be the white reader’s entre into the Black Panther’s world. More importantly, Priest introduced the Dora Milaje, T’Challa’s personal guard of women warriors, which added a much-needed feminine strength and energy to the world of Wakanda.

Who Is The Black Panther? by Reginald Hudlin & Ken Lashley

Following Priest’s impressive 62-issue run, a new Black Panther series was launched in 2005, which ran for 41 issues. Scribed by Hollywood writer and producer Reginald Hudlin (Boomerang, House Party, Django Unchained) and illustrated by John Romita, Jr, Hudlin’s Who Is The Black Panther arc introduced a neo-Kirbyesque Wakanda that was never conquered, defiant and untouched by the taint of colonial influence. More so, Hudlin’s arguably greatest addition to the Black Panther’s mythos was the creation of Shuri, T’Challa’s younger sister who would become the ruler of Wakanda and a Black Panther in her own right following T’Challa’s incapacitation.

A Nation Under Our Feet by Ta’Nehisi Coates & Brian Stelfreeze

In 2016, author and journalist Ta’Nehisi Coates would create a Wakanda rooted in a less romantic, more fact-based context reflecting the reality of the African continent. Though somewhat controversial amongst long-time Black Panther fans, Coates’ A Nation Under Our Feet arc tapped into the wellspring of African mythology, philosophy, culture, politics, and social issues I thought abandoned by other creators save myself. With a sense of novelization rivaling the earlier work of Don McGregor, Coates weaves a Wakanda exclusively from Afrofuturistic cloth, fulfilling the promise of a Black Panther I thought would never be realized.

This promise will be further made good come February 2018 when the Black Panther hits the big screen. Thanks to director Ryan Coogler, lead actor Chadwick Bosemen, Danai Gurira and the rest of the cast and crew, This will be the first time that audiences worldwide will see a vision of Wakanda and the Black Panther that had always existed in my mind, but will be new and exciting for the majority of a people who have been historically denied the ability to imagine a fantasy world where they play front and center.

You ready for this? I don’t think that you are…

In 2017, I attended the annual Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo (C2E2) not as an exhibitor, but as a fan. I strolled the convention taking in the sights and visiting the creators’ tables in Artist Alley, something I rarely had the luxury of doing since I began to attend comic book conventions over 20 years ago. Brian Stelfreeze, artist of Ta’Nehsi Coates’ inaugural run on the title was in attendance. I was able to strike up a conversation only to be surprised and humbled that an artistic hero of mine followed my work.

But, the best part of our exchange?

We acknowledged that we were drawing from the same wellspring for inspiration…

Now, keep this mind (especially for those sitting in the back of the auditorium)…

Black men and women who were murdered by police for doing nothing but being, well, Black (i.e. Trayvon Martin, Sandra Bland and the yet to be murdered Black person because it’s not Monday) are vilified as the media digs deep for any past transgression like, say for instance, jaywalking.

Yet, this heifer, who was caught in no less than three acts of statutory rape, is called hot? As if her attractiveness (which is mad questionable BTW… Love that #Pathology) makes her crime more palatable?

Yeah… Call me a bigot all day, every day. I’d rather be this kind of bigot than a hypocritical sycophant any day…

Damn fine movie. This is the direction the DCEU should have taken from jump and Gal Gadot wears the tiara well…

I looked over the initial post again… The #Sensitive really got all in a tizzy because I said Gal Gadot was white while others have been trying to make her the Hollywood Rachel Dolezal because she is Israeli… And I said that it was ok for Gal Gadot to be white…

Damn… I didn’t know that saying it’s ok to be white was so racist…

What I have found since I started posting this material in 2013, is how deep this #Pathology goes and how fervent people are willing to defend this toxic ideology (so much so that people voted for the absolute worst candidate in the 20th/21st century in 2016).

Lil’ Donnie by Mike Norton

The information is out there. The statistics exist for anyone to obtain. You don’t even have to really search for it. Hell, all I do is share information that other people post on their walls.

The reality is that this information completely dismantles the rhetoric that people have been spoon fed for centuries. It completely destroys the illusion of the inherent goodness that the #Pathology promotes. It’s all a lie, the ultimate Ponzi scheme, if you will. But, because of the fact that the majority of the world is brown and that brownness is overtaking the safe spaces and that brownness, with other marginalized voices actively rejecting the #Pathology, the “dominant” culture is real nervous.

They read the articles, hear the voices of critique and feel that; somehow, they are experiencing racism…

They couldn’t handle what real racism is.

Racism is the power to make policy based on prejudice. The only people who have, and exercised that “power,” is the “dominant” culture (AKA white culture). When one can produce evidence that marginalized people (i.e. Black, Latinix, Asian, LGBTQ, etc.) have held positions of power in this country to create legislation that is detrimental to others (AKA white people), then we can talk anti-white racism. Until then, marginalized people can only practice prejudice, which results in hurt feelings and, perhaps, individual agony…

The United States was founded on racism, built by racism and still feels it must operate under a racist paradigm (especially with this administration). Facts.

And that is the thing that they are most scared of, that the sins of the father will revisit them tenfold.

So, they lash out. They find spaces like mine to reclaim some sort of supremacy for themselves as if to say, “If I can shut this guy up, then I’m right and things can go back to ‘normal’.” They use the false information they’ve digested as fact assuming that someone like myself (read: Black) doesn’t know any better…

And, they get really mad when it doesn’t work.

With the Black Panther coming in 2018 (that trailer, yo!), the Trinity of Peak Blackness is complete…

Engaging in conversation and making “flame” arguments are two different things. Every single thing I post is to puncture the hypocrisy of the racist, sexist, homophobic, etc. narrative that we have been spoon-fed. Interestingly enough, pointing out this hypocrisy makes me the very thing I rail against?

Eff. That. Noise.

I don’t have to pull out any disclaimers about my intentions because, if you truly know me, you know where I’m coming from. I’m not going to sugar coat it, I’m going to be brutally honest. This is the work I do. It’s the work I’ve always done. I do not pray to the #Pathology of whiteness. I don’t believe in false prophets.

Because of this do I hate Euro-Americans or others of European descent? Not even. However, I’m not gonna sit and get pissed on while fools try to tell me it’s raining either.

Fun fact: I don’t troll other people’s walls with my viewpoints. Folks always wanna say something on my wall when they get #Sensitive about things that I point out…

Why is that?

Yeah, addressing this willful ignorance is tiring and disappointing. But, if what I do enlightens one, just one, person to take a step back and change their thinking, then I’ve done my job.

No, that’s not the total truth. The truth is that so many of the things have happened in the past almost-year I’ve written about before…

“But what about Hidden Figures? What about Get Out? What about the #45thRegime? What about Wonder Woman…”

Yo, there have been so many think pieces about all of that, and more, I felt that I would just be adding noise to the ether, especially when so many of those pieces touched on themes I would touch on but in, some cases, a more eloquent way.

Then, Friday happened.

Here’s my response to that. Art and words by yours truly…

My two favorite heroes from the Corporate Two

I will be giving you more of what (I hope) you remember me for soon and frequently. For the New Jacks checking this out for the first time, welcome.

Brothers and sisters rejoice… The Jackie Robinson of Black superheroes is coming to the big screen…

And, he will be played by Jackie Robinson…

If you’ve been living under a rock with no Wi-Fi, the comic book industry was pleasantly rocked by the news from Marvel Studios. Not only has Benedict Cumberbatch has been tapped to play Doctor Strange on the big screen, not only will Marvel give us the first comic book movie with a female lead in the upcoming Captain Marvel film, but…

Wait for it…

The King of Wakanda is coming to big screen Nov. 3, 2017… About damn time…

The Black Panther is coming to the big screen in 2017, and Chadwick Bosemen (42, Get on Up) will be the King of Wakanda.

This news, on top of DC’s announcement of a live-action Static series is the equivalent of Christmas and Kwanzaa coming early to comic geekdom, in general, but Black geekdom in particular. This is the news that the brothers and sisters have been waiting for. This is the comic book version of Barack Obama being elected as president of the United States. We are happy…

Very happy.

We are dancing in the streets, we are patting each other on the back, and we are acting like we have finally reached the Promised Land.

Quick sidebar: remember that the evolution of the comic book movie began with a little film called Blade.

Don’t get it twisted.

Blade is the template for the modern comic book film. Without the success of Blade, Marvel wouldn’t have made Spider Man, the X-Men and Fantastic Four. Marvel Studios would not have the balls to release Iron Man, The Hulk, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy to the big screen…

A comic book film with an African American lead, with an African American viewpoint, got the ball rolling.

You… Better recognize…

As much as Black fandom has to celebrate, as much money as we are about to throw to corporations that already got our dough, a couple of questions should be raised:

Does this news mean that the “Corporate Two” will now increasingly diversify their talent pool by hiring not only more artists, but also more writers of color?

More important, what happens to the independent Black comic book scene?

Yes, the one-two punch of the Static TV series and the Black Panther movie is huge news… huge. But, does that mean that the Black comic book community is satisfied? That we independent creators of color are gonna get lost in the shuffle?

Hell naw!

Miranda Mercury is that next shit…

As independents, we’ve got to stop thinking like creators and start thinking, and acting, like businesspeople. We’ve got to go hard in the paint, study our competition in all arenas, and become truly ready for combat. With all that is at our disposal, social media, Print on Demand, the democratized distribution landscape, we must evolve. We must be prolific, we must market, we must grind. We must make our voices so loud that they can’t ignore us. And, our product has to be so on point that they cannot refute us.

Midnight Tiger is that next shit…

In fact, what should happen… What will happen is that we must, and will, capitalize on this good news. We will use the momentum generated by these announcements to further our cause. We will piggyback with the notion of:

It’s already been done. We have our template. Brotherman, T.R.I.B.E. and the almighty Milestone Media showed us how it’s done.

Let’s rock this funky joint.

One Nation is that next shit…

Speaking of…

In other monumental moments in Black Comics History: Griot Enterprises, home of The Horsemen, will be distributing their graphic novels and art books through the biggest distributor in the United States, Ingram, Baker and Taylor. You can pre-order The Horsemen: Divine Intervention at your local bookstore or comic book store today.

The ISBN is: 9781941958001.

The Horsemen is that next shit…

We are beyond Diamond. We are beyond the comic book store. We are officially everywhere. Griot Enterprises is global, baby.